Meme’s the Word

There's a new article on memetics by Michael Greenker: Meme’s the Word.

The article is quite upbeat, saying:

The study of memetics also changes the way we think about thinking. All revolutions and paradigm shifts evoke fear and derision, of course, and the resistance from all sides to meme theory demonstrates its potential power. The emerging discipline of memetics will take the humanities and the social sciences by storm, with the potential to be the killer-app of the 21st century.

...and...

The model of memetics will allow researchers to get ahead of this trend and finally come to grips with 21st century global society and all of its potential. Meme theory represents the next step in the intellectual and metaphysical revolution Darwin sparked two and a half centuries ago.

That would certainly be nice, but memetics has faced almost four decades of resistance, through scientific turf wars, stupidity, misrepresentation, misunderstandings, lack of leadership and various other problems. Back when I published my book on Memetics a few years back, I hoped it might help to finally push memetics into the mainstream. However, having the correct framework is only the first stage in a long process.

Darwin's revolution is over 150 years old. Looking at the current situation, it may be a while yet before it is done.